Pediatric Plastic Surgery

Pediatric plastic surgeons reconstruct a variety of congenital and defects among children, including:

 Cleft lips and palates
 Premature closure of skull plates
 Large congenital nevi
 Hemangioma and vascular defects
 Congenital missing ear rim
 
Several acquired defects such as Injury and burns scarring can also be reconstructed.

These operations are complex surgical procedures, requiring microsurgery, stretching tissues to reconstruct damaged organs, rebuilding bone, transplanting cartilage and bone, and more.

Multidisciplinary teams function in order to diagnose and treat children with cleft lips and palates, or with other congenital defects of cranial and facial bones.  Plastic surgeons, neurosurgeons, maxillofacial surgeons, orthodontists, speech therapists, ophthalmologists and occupational therapists, work together with the children and their families, pre and post operatively, aiming to give them the best results.

When a fetus is diagnosed during pregnancy through an ultrasound examination as suffering from hare lip and/or cleft plate, the parents are referred for counseling. The specialists give them all the information regarding the influence of the defect on their child’s life, and the treatments available.  Hare lip is usually corrected before the age of six months. Aged 10-12 months, the infant goes under the repair of cleft palate. Some children might need additional surgical procedures, such as a bone transplant for the dental ridge, and/or additional surgery on the nose and septum, which would be carried out later on.